Patriots' Brady looks back, ahead

FOXBORO — A lot of time has passed since the skinny kid from Michigan broke in to the NFL.

Comment

By GLEN FARLEY

southcoasttoday.com

By GLEN FARLEY

Posted Jun. 19, 2014 at 12:01 AM

By GLEN FARLEY

Posted Jun. 19, 2014 at 12:01 AM

NEWS AND NOTES FROM WEDNESDAY

FOXBORO - The fact that he was excited to be on the field for organized team activities and has maintained that enthusiasm through mini-camp tells you this is not just another season in the life of...

» Read more

X

NEWS AND NOTES FROM WEDNESDAY

FOXBORO - The fact that he was excited to be on the field for organized team activities and has maintained that enthusiasm through mini-camp tells you this is not just another season in the life of veteran Will Smith.

"I'm excited," the Patriots defensive end said following the team's practice session on the fields behind Gillette Stadium Wednesday. "I've played football for the last 15, 16 years, so last year was a little tough not being able to be out there and play because I was hurt.

"But it's exciting to be back doing OTAs and now doing minicamp and being part of stuff. I hadn't done it for a whole entire year. So I'm excited to be out there."

A torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered while playing for the New Orleans Saints in a preseason game with the Houston Texans last August brought the 11-year veteran's 2013 season to an end before it began.

Released by the Saints in February and signed by the Patriots in May, the 6-foot-3, 282-pounder arrives in New England having appeared in 139 NFL games, starting 120, totaling 457 tackles, 67-1/2 sacks, 25 passes defensed, 20 forced fumbles, seven fumble recoveries and two interceptions in that time.

"Just my love for the game," Smith answered when asked what brought him back with his 33rd birthday (July 4) approaching. "It's something that I love doing — going out and competing and playing on Sunday.

"I play for myself as well as my family and my teammates. So it's something everybody wanted me to go back and do. It's something that I wanted to do. And I'm excited about doing it."

Arrington for ReviS: With Darrelle Revis missing, Kyle Arrington moved from the slot to that spot on the corner. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick wouldn't divulge the reason for Revis' absence. "All the players that are out there practicing are practicing and the ones that aren't, aren't," he said.

No big deal: He stands 6-foot-6 and weighs 318 pounds, but rookie offensive lineman Cameron Fleming insists there were many times when he wasn't the big man on campus at Stanford. "It's very humbling," the fourth-round draft pick said. "At most schools, football is the big sport and I guess at Stanford we became the big sport, but still you're in class, you're at a party next to an Olympian or a professional tennis player or a professional track athlete. People do amazing things there, so it's kind of humbling to say I just play football when somebody else has gone to Beijing and won a gold medal."

» Social News

FOXBORO — A lot of time has passed since the skinny kid from Michigan broke in to the NFL.

It's been 14 seasons, to be exact, time in which the Patriots' second of three sixth-round picks in the 2000 draft has thrown for 49,149 yards and 359 touchdowns.

With his 15th training camp with the franchise now little more than a month away, Tom Brady was in a bit of a reflective mood as exited the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium following the Patriots' second mini-camp session on Wednesday afternoon.

"I was pretty fortunate to come in at the time that I did with Coach (Bill) Belichick," Brady said, harkening back to his rookie year. "I got to learn the offense at the same time everybody else did because my first year was everyone else's first year, too. So we had a lot

more time than the kids have now.

"So we had quarterback school where we met five days a week for like nine hours, all on going through the playbook. And that was really helpful for me. Then you have an opportunity to go out there and compete. We kept four quarterbacks (starter Drew Bledsoe and backups John Friesz, Michael Bishop and Brady) that first year so it was just a great position for me to be in, sit back and learn and watch and then understand the things that I needed to do to help us. And when I got my opportunity, I tried to take advantage of it."

That fairytale script would, of course, unfold a year later. The rest, as they say, is history.

"The mental part came pretty natural for me," Brady reflected. "I think I really had to work hard on the physical part, what it takes to

be an NFL player, because there was a reason I was a sixth-round pick. Because I didn't have much ability. So you've got to try to work hard to improve those things over the years while still keeping my mental game sharp."

The mandatory three-day mini-camp, which was scheduled to conclude in Foxboro today, is aimed at sharpening the team's skills in advance of training camp.

According to the seasoned veteran, it would be unwise for a player to regard the free time between the two camps as vacation time.

"I think we really had our vacation and I think that part's over," said Brady. "Not that you shouldn't enjoy time with your family and

stuff like that because for the next seven months we're pretty busy every day. So I think you just really focus on being prepared for camp and it's really a time to really start accelerating your preparation because you've got a lot of time.

"Basically, what we're done these last four weeks you know the things you need to improve on. You know maybe it's conditioning or maybe any particular aspect of your game that you need to work on that showed up in this particular camp, and you have five weeks to focus on it and make it better so you can come into the camp at the most important time really at your best."

Fourteen years have passed, but even with a resume that now speaks of a first-ballot trip to Canton, Ohio, Brady continues to strive to do that.

"(My fundamentals) can always be better so (I'm) trying to just work on being accurate and consistent and dependable," said Brady. "All those things come into play on every play. "I'm just going to always try to be the best I can be at those things. We work on the fundamentals every day so I'm glad I've still got five weeks to prepare for training camp, and I'll use all those days to get my body and my mind in the best position they can be to help my team win."